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Just A Number.

5 treaties. 5 days. And it’s over. Well, kinda. 2 essays still to write :P. We covered so much materials, I’m not sure how much I absorbed. But it was good. It opened my eyes to so many issues that have existed for years in human rights discourse but I’d never been exposed to or been interested enough to look into.

As a (mega) side note, I realised that age is really just a number. I knew this in theory but to see it play out before me has been a really interesting observation I’ve made since become part of the JD. I’m definitely on the younger end of the scale in my year level, with most having worked or travelled a bit before coming in to do post-grad, and there is often a feeling of intimidation that keeps me from giving my opinions in class since everyone seems so knowledgeable in whatever the topic of discussion may be. But then I find myself engaging in truly mentally stimulating conversations outside of the classroom with these same people and discover that I can actually hold my own and give some equally valid points myself. We were walking back from our class break-up lunch today, and I commented about how there is still the concern about what would happen to female lawyers when they wanted to start having children and how that made me think about planning out my life (e.g. when I wanted to get married etc.), then one of the girls mentioned her age and how that was one of the reasons why she was accelerating the degree. Her age left me flabbergasted! She did not look it (even though she may never read this, I feel like I’m invading privacy or something if I said the actual number…well, she’s more than 10 years my senior)! What shocked me even more was that we’d been having a perfectly good conversation beforehand and the age gap had not been a barrier at all… I guess when you grow up in a Chinese family background, you get taught that there is a certain way that you should speak to people of your generation, people older than you and those who are younger than you. Coming to law school has made me realise that people of different ages can meet on a level playing field… what matter is not how many years you’ve lived, but how much you are willing to learn and perhaps how mature you want to be…?

I had to end that with a question mark because I’m not sure if I’m getting my point across articulately… but being in the JD has kind of got my head around why it’s possible for there to be such big age gaps in marriages too… that used to be something I couldn’t really make sense of. I couldn’t understand how someone who was soooo much older/younger, would be able to converse at the same level, or be interested in someone who was soooo much younger/older… I guess the more important thing is that you are on the same page on the issues that really matter and that you are moving in the same direction, at the same velocity, towards the same goals. Perhaps one of the lessons I did learn about myself last year was that I’m sooooo not ready to get married yet! lols, I didn’t think I was going to be anytime soon but 2010 was a big epiphany to me that He still has a lot to work on/out in me before I’d be able to partner up with another individual to do life with. I think it takes a certain level of maturity to not only put a ring on another’s finger, pledging to marry them but to also be able to live in a way that will preserve the sanctity of marriage up until you say ‘I do’ and then for the rest of your life….hmmmm, how did I get here? lols, who knows. I’ve been having weird dreams as well lately which I won’t get into…I attribute it all to spending 7hrs + per day in the law school!

Hehehe, I try to make sense but sometimes it comes out as a stream of not-well-thought-out consciousness ^^’. Yeah, I think someone once told me, “You are only as old as your dreams… so keep dreaming!” – or something to that effect. If you put your mind to it, I guess anything is possible :).